T40, XP and Office 2007 Performance

Message

lilserenity · #1 Post by **lilserenity** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:55 am

Hello,

I presently have a T40 with the standard 512MB and 5400RPM 40GB hard disk. It's pretty good for mostly everything. It also has a Pentium M Banias 1.5GHz but I am not looking to replace that as any gain will be minimal from my understanding.

I'm really enjoying using Office 2007, particularly Word. Before I was using Office XP and Word XP which loaded instantly more or less whereas Office 2007's applications take a little while longer.

I was wondering what other users have found with their Office 2007 experiences. I'm planning on upgrading the RAM to 1GB if this will help the Office 2007 apps load up quicker; and not be so slow (at times) of un-minimising items from the task bar.

This is a fairly big issue for me since the Word documents I edit tend to be large (over 200 pages often for my books...) and though I love using Office 2007 (which I am trialling), I am tempted to switch back to Office 2002/XP on Windows despite Word 2007 being the best version (as far as I'm concerned) since Word 5.1 for the Macintosh (which I still use and have made Word 2007 compatible with despite MS' KB remarks).

Any other 2007 users and their experiences please chime in, I would appreciate it, particularly for those using a T4x series machine, I would just like to make sure I'm getting the best out of this machine as this ThinkPad totally rocks (although I do believe my brother's T20 is a lot more rugged... ah well!)

Vicky

justin412 · #2 Post by **justin412** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:58 pm

Right now might not be the best time for me to test how well word 2007 loads, considering that I'm running Vista, VPC2007 installing XP, Outlook, and 4 explorer windows, but it didn't take all too long for it to load for me. While not instant, it was fairly quick. My specs are 1.6, 1GB RAM, 100GB 7200RPM, in a T40 as well. So, my recommendation is definitely upgrade the RAM to at least 1GB and if possible, upgrade the HDD to a 7200 RPM. I have a seagate that I pulled from one of my old laptops (I had just upgraded the hdd before I got the T40) because the Hitachi 5400RPM one in there was clicking and driving me nuts! Even in Vista, Office and all related apps work like a charm.

#3 Post by **bill bolton** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:54 pm

lilserenity wrote:I was wondering what other users have found with their Office 2007 experiences.

To date I have only loaded up Office 2007 on a T41 running Vista, but in generally it seems to be performing satisfactorily. The T41 has a 5400 rpm drive and 1Gb of memory.

Cheers,

Bill

marvel · #4 Post by **marvel** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:02 pm

My experience gives MSO2007 thumbs up, although somtimes reluctantly. Outlook loads too long (even after I uninstalled search etc.). Powerpoint is a pleasure to use, but uses more resources (all the clear type and new animations used. I run it on win xp pro.

I´m also impressed by the new Expression Web.

Cheers!

lilserenity · #5 Post by **lilserenity** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:14 pm

Thanks for all of the replies so far.

It definitely seems that 1GB is the required memory from this. I must note that once using the application Office 2007 doesn't appear any slower in use than Office XP or Office 2003 on my work PC (a P4 2.26GHz, 512MB, XP Pro). It's just the start up time and unminimising/switching apps that suffer most which screams RAM!

I just wanted to make sure before making the purchase, I know it's not a lot of money, I just want to be careful as I'm currently doing up my flat and it's not like I can't use Word...

I'm only using Word and Excel, Powerpoint on the rare occasion and OneNote. (I've got Home and Student Edition) I don't manage my e-mail on my ThinkPad, that tends to fall to my Mac when I'm using it and not Yahoo! Mail Beta.

A 7200RPM drive is desirable, I can get a 7K100 80GB for about £55 inc. VAT which is not too bad meaning I can get the whole thing upgraded for £75--but I wish to leave that a couple of months when I'm home and dry financially. (Rather level headed for myself I have to say!)

Vicky

marvel · #6 Post by **marvel** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:35 pm

[RANT]: The 7k100 is truly a boost for a tired thinkpad, althou not as silent as the old 4200rpm. Surely, no pain no gain, and I won´t go back, but the sound is worth considering before you buy. Working in a library or any silent environment - the drive sound might after a while get irritating.

FTC · #7 Post by **FTC** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:58 pm

marvel,

Noise and vibration issues in drives are always something amazing.. even different units of the same model usually do behave different in this areas... I have several drives, a 5K80, a 7K60 and a 7K100 which I (well, all the family) use in various notebooks at home, and I can tell you in my case the 7K100 drive is as silent as any 4200 RPM drive (completely silent) and does not vibrate at all. My 7K60 does vibrate a bit, but is also quite silent... I am not negating the fact that some 7K100's and 7K60's have been reported as 'noisy' or vibrating, it's just that there is also a chance if you get one that yours does not have the problem.

lilserenity · #8 Post by **lilserenity** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:36 pm

Looks like a nice 80GB 7k100 drive and an upgrade to 1GB RAM will be the order of the day for this T40 come next pay packet. In ooooh, 3 weeks time

Thanks again for the advice,

Vicky

#9 Post by **KristianJ** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:09 pm

That will help you swimmingly.

I'm using a trial version of 2007 on my machine and I agree that the startup is marginally slower for the main apps than XP/2003. However I used one of the betas back when my T40 only had 512 and the startup time doesn't seem much different from what it is now. I can't recall much about the minimising time back with the beta but it's satisfactory on my machine now.